es they rarely add anything
to cacoa but arnatto (sometimes a little fresh butter), though it is
often scented and sweetened, and sold in little rolls at five-pence
and ten-pence each, currency. It is always boiled with milk, which,
though very indigestible when boiled and taken alone, seems to lose
this quality when taken with chocolate. Chocolate thus made is much
drank, when cold, in the middle of the day, and is considered, both by
the negroes and the old settlers, as a most nutritive and salutary
beverage.

The signs by which _good chocolate_ or cacao is known are these:--It
should dissolve entirely in water, and be without sediment; it should
be oily, and yet melt in the mouth; and if genuine, and carefully
prepared, should deposit no grits or grounds. That made in the West
Indies, and in some parts of Cuba, is dark; but that manufactured in
Jamaica is of a bright brick colour, owing to the greater quantity of
arnatto which is used in the preparation, and which, I think, gives it
a richer and more agreeable flavor.

In an economical point of view, chocolate is a very important article
of diet, as it may be literally termed meat and drink; and were our
half-starved artisans, over-wrought factory children, and ricketty
millinery girls, induced to drink it instead of the innutritious
beverage called "tea," its nutritive qualities would soon develop
themselves in their improved looks and more robust constitution. The
price, too, is in its favour, cacao being eight-pence per pound; while
the cheapest black tea, such as even the Chinese beggar would despise,
drank by milliners, washerwomen, and the poorer class in the
metropolis, is three shillings a pound, or three hundred and fifty per
cent, dearer, while it is decidedly injurious to health.

The heads of the naval and military medical departments in England
have been so impressed with the wholesomeness and superior nutriment
of cocao, that they have judiciously directed that it shall be served
out twice or thrice a week to regiments of the line, and daily to the
seamen on board Her Majesty's ships, and this wise regulation has
evinced its salutary effects in the improved health and condition of
the men. Indeed, this has been most satisfactorily established in
Jamaica among the troops; and the same may be asserted of the seamen
in men of war on the coast.

But the excellent qualities of chocolate were known not only to the
Mexicans and Peruvians, from whom, as a